"Capitulate", Hell; We're Just Winning In A Different Dimension

Boehner sacrifices a little on the debt ceiling to gain a lot:

Why Boehner capitulated

Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) abrupt decision to capitulate and hand President Obama a straightforward debt-ceiling increase resulted from simmering divisions that have virtually paralyzed his majority.

On an issue that once defined his Speakership, Boehner is now confronting a president who won’t negotiate and a conference that can’t coalesce around an offer.

However:

Boehner’s allies argued that the Speaker, by steering members away from a head-on confrontation, had saved his party from a repeat of its politically damaging defeat after the government shutdown last fall. Boehner began lowering expectations for a debt-limit victory weeks ago, and conservatives like Labrador publicly argued for putting up a clean bill that would be passed by Democrats.

Well, yeah - failure to beat one's head agains a wall uselessly (but symbolically!) can count as a win. More important will be the resulting dynamics. It is possible that Boehner so enjoyed passing a bill with almost no Republican votes that he will do something similar on immigration. More likely is that he will feel a greater obligation to preserve party unity on that hot-button issue, which should mean no action in 2014. And sometimes nothing is a real cool hand.

Comments

[Jim Eagle]

Boehner was using the modified slacker strategy with this move.

[daddy]

"Capitulate", Hell; We're Just Winning In A Different Dimension

And look at all the good press it is getting him:

GOP bedrock principle dropped in debt limit vote

WASHINGTON — It was once the backbone of the House Republican majority — the hard-line stand that brought President Barack Obama to the negotiating table and yielded more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction.

On Tuesday, it abruptly vanished, the victim of Republican disunity and a president determined not to bargain again.

[henry]

The JEF would ignore the limit anyway, why give him the opportunity? Laws, Congress, the Constitution, even the will of the people all take a back seat to his pen.

[matt]

Boehner wants to win in November and hopefully, maybe, perhaps the repubs can crush the Leftist scum running the country.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Boehner?-- is a career politician, and has no other life skills...so.... follow the money. He is owned by big biz, and he couldn't deliver what they wanted on Immigration/Visas.....so.... as a consolation prize he delivers clean debt extension, and blames the TP, because they screwed up last September. Is he dangerous? no, just Pitiful. He won't be speaker next congress, and he might not even run next Nov, just retire and take the lobbyist money.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

TomM-- nice Gen Smith 1st Marine Div reference. You are a scholar.

[Threadkiller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1G2Jyvpje8

[Danube on iPad]

Sitting on the patio under a cobalt-blue sky with my bride, my dog, my coffee and a Vegas 5 Maduro torpedo. Life is mighty fine.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Look at the nerve of this guy (from the Corner):

After Boehner announced his intention to pass the increase with a majority of Democrats supporting in the caucus meeting on Tuesday, the Washington Post reports that the room was silent, prompting the speaker to ask, “I’m getting this monkey off your back and you’re not going to even clap?”

Look at that!

[TheVIMH: you mean how he gave up and let the Dems run rough shod over him and wants his caucus to applaud him for it?]
No, not that.

[TheVIMH: oh, you mean the racist use of the word 'monkey'?]
Not even close.

[TheVIMH: Then what?]
Look at that split infinitive! I mean, just look at it!!!

[Jeff Dobbs]

Oh. Snow's here.

Kaaaayyyyyyrrrrooooooo!!!!

[Stephanie VIP shhhhh its fight club]

Strange. Russian pairs skaters skating to "Jesus Christ Superstar"

May Lenin be corkscrewing in hell with that deliciousness.

[Miss Marple]

Russian skaters also skated to the theme from Schindler's list and Dr. Zhivago.

The American Mutt & Jeff pair in the short program skated to some sort of techno music I didn't recognize and was dreadful.

[Miss Marple]

Also, I have spotted Orthodox crosses on several of the Russian skaters, non-ironically worn.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

I don't think Boehner had much of a choice. Because the debt hawks did not have a unified approach (i.e., they could not agree on a single quid for the raising the debt limit quo) there was no chance that anything could come out of the House that was tactically helpful to the GOP in the mid-terms. There is only so much a Speaker can do to make a diverse caucus hew to his line.

Under this scenario, he makes the dems and RINOs in purple districts own the debt ceiling increase, and allows virtually all GOP debt hawks from red districts to vote no.

I love Levin's advocacy for our cause, but I am afraid his zeal sometimes overrides his judgment -- especially in legislative matters.

OK, I am a softy, but I also think understand legislative reality.

[Stephanie VIP shhhhh its fight club]

Yep, MM. And the Chinese just skated to Les Mis. Strange bedfellows.

[Miss Marple]

Very strange, Stephanie. We live in the dreadful "interesting times."

It takes some amount of courage to brand yourself as a Christian when you are already a target for terrorists, as all of the athletes are, especially the Russians with Chechnya not that far away.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

JimR-- all true, but Boehner's lousy leadership skills caused that incoherent caucus dynamic in the first place. He goes.

[Miss Marple]

NK, You maybe shouldn't set yourself up for disappointment. We don't vote on Boehner, nor does Mark Levin or any of the radio critics.

It's the GOP caucus which will vote for him or not, and while some of the tea party GOP members might be dissatisfied, a lot are ok with him, and you also have to have a replacement that will get enough votes.

Boehner is a compromise candidate between the TP and the moderates. The moderates won't vote for a Trey Gowdy, and the TP folks aren't going to vote for one of the old time elitist types.

So you get Boehner. Good luck on getting him replaced.

[matt]

Nothing must stop an overwhelming blowout in November. We need to find the best and brightest and most aggressive conservatives and support them in any way we can.

We are in an existential war.

[Account Deleted]

There are a number of ways in which the electorate can be split and examined. Given the correlation between a President's approval rating and his party's success in second mid-term elections, it's useful to compare BOzo 2/7/10 with BOzo 2/7/14 using a couple of wide splits. Gallup provides weekly splits and I find the Women and <$60K splits particularly interesting.

.........2/8/10..2/7/14
Women....56.......43
<$60K.....53.......43
White......42.......32

Looking at election week 2010, the numbers were:

Women....49
<$60K.....49
White......36

ISTM Boehner has no wish to introduce wild cards while holding a pat hand. The female LIVs who turned on BOzo when they realized there was nothing affordable (which they interpreted as "free") about BOzocare should be allowed to nurse the anger engendered by prog lies and liars without distraction.

A decision to shelter in place may not stir admiration wrt leadership qualities but I really question the fervent desire to seek out a "leader" in a whorehouse. Finding someone who can walk while chewing gum seems a better goal.

[glasater]

...had saved his party from a repeat of its politically damaging defeat after the government shutdown last fall

This so-called 'damaging defeat' was defined by the idiotic mainstream media and was supposed to be the foundation for an R defeat in the House this coming November.

How quickly the disastrous Obamacare results have trumped that whole meme.

Who now remembers government shutdown from last October? That is so yesterday...

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

MissM-- the Repubs just voted on Boehner's leadership... what 19 voted for the Debt Bill? Besides, they won't have to vote him out, he'll leave for the $$$.

PS: 'political correctness' in Putin's Russia means Eastern Orthodox belief. Putin is a true believin' Russian Motherland Nationalist, tied to Russian Orthodox mysticism. Those Russian youngsters may be wearing Orthodox crucifixes to stay in Tsar Vlad's good graces. I do agree with Vlad about one thing -- 'Europe' is committing demographic and civilizational suicide by becoming Muslim Eurabia. He is pushing back against that-- I wish him luck.

[glasater]

It's interesting to me that NK denigrates Rand Paul as a 'nut case' libertarian (he's no such thing) and also John Boehner.

Just who do you like for heavens sake?

[Jim Eagle]

MM,

I am not surprised at the overt display of Christianity by the Russians. Putin is a "born again" Christian who at least unlike Obama attends church regularly especially this past Christmas. Russia is spending a lot of money to restore all their old churches that were abandonded under the Soviets and all Christian religions are growing even the Mormons.

I think Medvedev is also a "born again" Christian.

[narciso]

Legislative reality defined as nothing that we care about, and everything they do, heck of a job, there,

[Beasts of England]

Winning!

[Jane-curling is on!]

Ray Nagen found guilty

[narciso]

Actually one prefers Gen. McAuliffe's rather frank expression, the blanc mange attitude, got you mayor Bane, or have you forgotten,

[Danube on iPad]

I agree with Rick. The debt is a serious problem but it cannoy be meaningfully addressed by a GOP house alone. In order to end this debt explosion we need GOP control of both cgambers and the WH. And if we get that, what will be needed is a revolutionary, systemic overhaul of the entire entitlement apparatus.

The problem is, such an overhaul would generate a spasm of caterwauling the likes of which we have never seen (unless it is done entirely on the backs of the 10%). And the party would be thrown out summarily.

I don't know exactly what happens to a nation when its debt exceeds, say, 125% of GDP, but that is what I foresee. The Democratic party clearly has not the slightest institutional aversion to ever-increasing debt.

[narciso]

the laisse a faire attitude while Steyer was dumping millions into McAwful's campaign, is considered what.

[Stephanie VIP shhhhh its fight club]

Sleeting!

YUCK. My beautiful Holly tree is starting to get a frosty icicled glaze on the leaves.

[centralcal]

Speaking of Nagin and his 5 guilty counts, I got a chuckle out of this snarky tweet:

Retweeted by JimWilemon
Ryan Maue ‏@RyanMaue 9m

MSNBC disaster preparation expert Ray Nagin ringing up an impressive number of convictions on Bribery & Corruption right now. #Gulity

[narciso]

No the Democrats want to burn the place to the ground, and raid the treasure chest, this will not go well, but there is no opposition to this sawdust Caesar, no law he will abide by, no person he will not destroy, the distinction between and tommy
boy Maduro's is of degree but not quality,

[Jane-curling is on!]

Guilty on 20 of 21 counts.

I have no problem with this action by Boehner. I think he did the right thing even tho I disagree with it.

I do have an issue with Boehner's failure to allow us to get to the bottom of Benghazi tho.

[Account Deleted]

Walker's Wisconsin is the model.

[narciso]

It is striking who he regards as a burden, and who he trusts, not surprising but striking nonetheless

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Glasater with respect-- please follow a little more closely. My point is that Boehner's failing is that he's reached his peter principle of leadership. Fine man, his political principles work fine, and he mostly kept his 2010 promise to prevent 'more bad things' from happening. I've supported him for all of those reasons. But, hopefully, the dynamic is now shifting to where the repubs control the Senate, and the 2015 Repub House-Senate budget war with Obummer will be huge. Not only will tactics be important but controlling the House to implement those tactics will be vital. Boehner has proven himself incapable of doing that (think Denny Hastert). In less than 6 months he's gone from caving to the House TP and pushing a defund vote, to passing a clean Debt Bill with the dems and blaming the House TP.Utter chaos. Epic leadership fail. Rand? I don't pay much atttention to him, he is really all over the place A Libertarian? A Political opportunist? Nutz? I don't know and don't care. Who do I support to get conservative priciples put into political action? I've been clear on that too, Walker, Johnson, Mike Lee, even Pat Toomey, and others.

[henry]

I guess we have to stop beating up on trolls and LIVs... we now know which gene they are missing. When the lord handed out the gene for brains, they were too busy passing a feather.

[centralcal]

lol, Jane - the guilty verdicts just kept going. 20 of 21! Wonderful.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Narciso says it. The modern Dems are in smash and grab mode. They know OPM is running out fast (run out already?) and they are bustin' the Treasury out with both hands while they can. Gangsters.

[Threadkiller]

Record-setting fine hits Sacramento lobbyist Kevin Sloat

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/02/11/2919085/record-setting-fine-hits-sacramento.html

[Threadkiller]

People who don't pay attention to Rand Paul know that he is all over the place.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

RickB@2:10-- couldn't agree more. walker's implemented great fiscal/social policy and simultaneously carried out a political miracle. He is my also model of winning politics and avoiding national bankruptcy.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

who's faulkner?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

avoiding national bankruptcy... or at least managing as well as feasible.

[mad jack]

The guy who won the AD mayor race.

[centralcal]

NK: Is this who you are asking about (from NRO)?

Kevin Faulconer recaptured the mayor’s office in San Diego for Republicans in a special election yesterday. The polls were skin-tight leading into yesterday’s election, and unions poured in millions to keep control in the nation’s eighth-largest city.

But in the end the vaunted Obama election model — flood the zone with negative attack ads and excite the base of the Democratic party — flopped. Faulconer defeated fellow City Council member David Alvarez by nine points in a city that Barack Obama carried by 63 percent to 37 percent only 15 months ago.

[mad jack]

SD not AD

[Saladin]

"saved his party from a repeat of its politically damaging defeat after the government shutdown last fall."

Really? The Soldier of Orange surrendered the strategy after it was so successful that polling indicates reclaiming the Senate is a certainty, and that certainty is only bolstered by the short-throw between now and November?

What is the definition of capitulate? Where is that Lexicon?

[Danube on iPad]

"Ray Nagin found guilty"

Excelsior! Does he get to go to a chocolate prison?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

That would be Kevin Faulconer-- the Faulkner thing is a small quip of mine, .... a very small quip.

[Captain Hate]

The problem is, such an overhaul would generate a spasm of caterwauling the likes of which we have never seen (unless it is done entirely on the backs of the 10%). And the party would be thrown out summarily.

We need somebody to do to the entitlement culture what Reagan did to inflation, which had resisted being tamed through at least two Republican administrations; well, one and a half. If Christie didn't have such RINO baggage he might be able to get it done but Walker is a more likely source. It won't be easy but it also calls for treating the citizens like mature individuals and not trying to con them with "compassionate conservatism" flimflammery.

The trouble is to find a pol who is principled enough to resist falling into the pandering mindset.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

unfortunately national bankruptcy will focus the mind of the conservative POTUS that has to clean up this epic Debt mess... it's easier to avoid pamdering when there's nothing to Swag with... ask the new Repub Mayor of Detroit.

[Miss Marple]

Nagin is out pending appeal.

I am waiting for him to make it Bush's fault.

[Threadkiller]

Will Nagen be sent to a Chocolate prison?

[Old Lurker]

Reagan had an easier time with inflation than anyone will have unwinding our gimme culture. Plus Reagan had Volker, some conservative southern dems, and some conservative reps. And then we were but one generation into a welfare state but now are three or four. Reagan had a population that had experienced WWII and the Depression and thus knew something about how tough life can be in the world and hence why maybe something special was happening in the US. Finally, the jerks that are my generation had not achieved critical mass yet.

[Jane-curling is on!]

Nagin is eligible for 120 years. He testified in his trial and said he did nothing wrong. The jury delivered a strong response.

Courts have got to start taking money from these felons. He probably cost NO billions. He (and his family) should be penniless for the rest of his life.

I don't get the chocolate joke.

[Old Lurker]

Jane, YouTube "Ray Nagin Chocolate City"

[Threadkiller]

 The Senate voted to advance a one-year debt limit hike Wednesday, after a cliffhanger vote ended with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, voting “aye.”

The Senate voted 67-31 to end a filibuster on the legislation threatened by tea party firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in a vote that took nearly an hour to complete as senators wrestled with their decision. The Senate then proceeded to a vote on final passage with a simple majority threshold.McConnell and Cornyn voted when the measure appeared stuck just short of the 60 votes needed.

A dozen Republicans voted with Democrats in all, most in a clump after McConnell and Cornyn led the way: John Barrasso of Wyoming, Susan Collins of Maine, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Thune of South Dakota.

http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/senate-votes-on-debt-limit/

[Jim Miller]

Bernard Montgomery and Mark Levin: I have been reading and re-reading Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy" and -- assuming what people here say about Levin is correct -- I can't help but see parallels between him and Montgomery.

Montgomery was always undermining Eisenhower, so much so that he was finally stopped only by the threat of being fired. The British general, like the American talk show host, didn't seem to understand that he had an obligation to help the coalition stay together and that Eisenhower, for all his faults, was probably the best man they had for that delicate task.

Political parties are coalitions, and will be most successful if the parts of the coalition can at least tolerate each other.

Speaker Boehner understands that, but I doubt that Levin does.

(Getting along with the British was easy, compared to getting along with the French. At the end of the war, General Devers sent General De Lattre de Tassigny a letter that included this sentence: "For many months we have fought together, often on the same side.")

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

OL-- no doubt that the Debt Bomb going off and managing the calamity afterwards will be worse and far more difficult than Reagan taking the recesssion heat from Volcker's 20% interest rates . But that era, as you know, was no piece of cake, and the greatest generation did not cope well in many cases. the rapid de-industrialization of the rust belt ended multi-generational well paying blue collar labor. And that gut wrenching time created much demagoguery from the dems. It will be worse and harder now, but the pain is not unprecedented. The Boomer and Millenial victims of this new pain? they'll definitely bleat more than the Greatest Generation, that's for sure.

[Threadkiller]

Later that day:

The increase was approved 55-43 on a strict party line vote with only Democrats in support.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/02/12/senate-debt-ceiling-vote/5421835/

The party of stupid thinks they left no fingerprints.

[daddy]

Jeter just announced that he's retiring after the Yankee's upcoming 2014 losing Season.

[Danube on iPad]

Well said, JimM. For that very reason I have never been a Levin fan.

BTW, de Lattre went on to suffer the humiliation of Dien Bien Phu.

[Threadkiller]

Is a Representative's responsibility derived a coalition between himself and the people who elected him to represent them?

[Threadkiller]

...derived from...

[daddy]

.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

Here's another attaboy for JimM.

I suspect Mark Levin has seldom settled a case he was litigating. There is much to be said for élan and the frontal assault. Sometimes it will win a battle. Rarely does it win a war. And it is even more rarely sufficient without overwhelming force behind it.

At least, that's what I was taught fifty years ago in Armor Officer Basic.

[Old Lurker]

Did you guys know that the EPA is a land court?

Who knew?

LUN

[glasater]

Thank you Jim Miller for that historical story about Eisenhower.

To compare Speaker Boehner to Dennis Hastert and saying there's not difference is wrong.

John Boehner's never taken an earmark dime. Cannot same the same about Dennis Hastert.

And I cannot believe the TP is running a primary candidate against Boehner.

[Threadkiller]

Poor Cyrano de Bergerac
Went over for an autograph
He looked at the page
And was amazed
He thought he was hugging Shaq

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Boehner's failings are very different from Hastert, and personally I respect Boehner a lot more than I did Hastert. But Boehner needs to go; nothing personal, nothing ideological, just political necessity.

[narciso]

We laugh bitterly about the Lackwitz sisters, but to put it tactfully, they Kardashianed the country,

What achievement has Boehner brought about that we would recognize, none, he was part of the same clique of Top Men, that surrounded Hastert

[James D.]

Jeter just announced that he's retiring after the Yankee's upcoming 2014 losing28th World Championship Season.

Fixed that for you, daddy!

[narciso]

Nothing works, and yet practically every outlet being Carlos Slim's, Rupert's Gazette, the Bezos Pest, Gannett today, and it's all good,
whatever isn't is the fault of the Tea Party

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

When the Dem/Left Rainbow Tour when at its apex in spring 2009, Boehner, Cantor and Ryan stood up, said that Emperor Barry had no clothes and pushed back, despite all DemMedia hate thrown at them. They weren't RAF fighter Command in 1940, but for politicians they were downright heroic (especially Cantor.) I have a lot of faults, but ingraditude isn't one of them. We owe the House Repubs-- Big Time.

[Captain Hate]

Levin worked for Ed Meese. If you guys want to talk about somebody being undermined we can start there.

[Threadkiller]

Rand Paul pushing back after legislation gets past the Trinity of GOP heroes is lunacy.

This is why I don't follow anything he does.

[21_cathy_f_in_tripep@d_prison_98]

The debt limit quid pro quo always needed to be tightly focused and just on Obamacare. The insurer bailouts were a really good target. But the LIVs are susceptible to arguments claiming that the Obamacare fiasco is at least partly a result of Republican intransigence, no matter how silly the logic -- because the LIVs are not paying attention. So perhaps just staying out of the way of the Democrats self destruction is a better strategy.

I am very disturbed, however, by the structuring of the debt limit as time and not money. The Democrats are in loot the treasury as fast as they can to steal everything that they can before it all collapses mode. It would have been much better to raise the debt limit by a particular AMOUNT and then if they Democrats loot too quickly then it will come back again before the election.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Lunacy? no. Useless and self-indulgent?, probably.

[narciso]

Yes. he doesn't speak about it, but it was his formative experience, two sent two wolves, I mean special prosecutors after him, and they came up with bupkis, but that didn't matter,

[Jim Eagle]

What is that Yiddish word?

Chutzpah

That's the one.

Nancy Pelosi: "We didn't treat Bush this way".

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Seven months of Budget Authority to go, will Jack Lew get himself impeached, and possibly prosecuted for borrowing to spend on cronies without budget authority? TBD
They are in smash and grab mode.

[Jim Eagle]

BTW, Charlotte and Raleigh are gridlocked with abandonded cars ala Hotlanta weeks back. Hope Hit is okay. I-77 and 277 are at a standstill.

[Captain Hate]

Nancy Pelosi: "We didn't treat Bush this way"

It's been a long time since she said anything with even a tenuous basis in reality.

[Jim Eagle]

The BI article with photos on North Carolina snowpallooza

[narciso]

GiGo, with or without Bieber;

http://babalublog.com/2014/02/12/heres-a-sampling-of-the-poll-questions-asked-by-castros-pr-agency-the-atlantic-council-to-their-representative-sample/

[daddy]

Charlotte and Raleigh are gridlocked

Completely unimportant, JiB. Now if there was gridlock between Chapel Hill and Durham that might be something to be concerned about.

[narciso]

carp, that looks bad,

[narciso]

Rupert's other publication dissapoints;

http://patterico.com/2014/02/12/unspeakable-outrage-obama-administration-to-require-employers-to-attest-on-their-tax-forms-that-they-have-not-laid-off-workers-to-avoid-the-obamacare-mandate/

[Ignatz]

Levin's job isn't to build a compromised coalition.
Without the ballast of the Levins and Tammy Bruces and Limbaughs pulling things somewhat in the direction they should the whole useless party would be even more useless than it is, which at this point may only be a theoretical possibility.

[narciso]

taranto goes fight club

One problem with the employer mandate is that it creates perverse incentives. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees aren't subject to the mandate, which means that for a company on the cusp, the marginal cost of hiring the next employee could run into the tens of thousands of dollars--or, for one just above the threshold, the marginal savings from firing a worker can be considerable. Employers can also reduce their liability by replacing full-time workers with part-time ones. The exact workings of the mandate are complicated; the National Federation of Independent Business, appellant in the 2012 Supreme Court case that upheld most of ObamaCare, charts some scenarios.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Will Duke -NC be postponed for public safety?

[Captain Hate]

I have been reading and re-reading Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy"

If you're still here, Jim, how did you like those? I was fascinated by the first book "Army at Dawn" in its depiction of just how unprepared things were going into Northern Africa but I also had a bit of difficulty following the narrative as it seemed like I was reading a barely organized jumble of facts instead of a masterly written narrative. Or that I was reading a work of journalism instead of history. Or maybe that's just me...

[Ignatz]

--BTW, de Lattre went on to suffer the humiliation of Dien Bien Phu.--

Hell In a Very Small Place by Bernard Fall;
great book.

[anonamom]

Sleet here now, on top of about five inches of heavy snow that started around ten.

You can't say we learned a thing from what happened in Atlanta two weeks ago. Sheesh.

[Donald]

Sid Ceaser passed.

He was a funny dude.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

RIP Sid 'Your Show of Shows' Caesar.
Very funny man.

[Ignatz]

OL's EPA link is a little amazing; they decided they had the power to declare a million acres of Wyoming Indian reservation land because the Arapaho claim the right to regulate air pollution.
Nah we don't need no insurrection; the fact is, if you consider the USA a collection of self governing states and citizens, we're in one already as the feds and the Dems are in rebellion against the legitimate government of this country.

[Ignatz]

If a GOP Pres and congress come to pass in 2016, they could do much worse than enlisting Erskine Bowles in setting up meaningful entitlement reform.